Rotting Christ. Some already hate their admittedly contentious band name. Others continually take issue with their ever-evolving metal style. On top, they’re often labeled Satanists, and shunned by fellow musicians and states alike.

Fancy an example or two?

In 2005 Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine forced Rotting Christ off a gig in Athens, stating personal religious beliefs. Or more recently, in 2018, Sakis and Themis Tolis were arrested in Georgia after stepping off a plane. On grounds of satanism and – hold on to something – terrorism.

I just checked the YouTube echo chamber. It had to do with The Heretics of Rotting Christ, their latest 2019 full-length epic.

In the midst of the fawning by the usual fanboys and girls at work, I found one guy. And he or she depicted a small file tree, where all of those tracks on this new record got classified as ‘bad songs’.

Woe, someone had the courage to enter a negative remark into the usual virulent strings of YouTube commenting prowess. Something that we do not see too often, but smartly done with a … [...] Click to raid more!

Two things hit home right away once you commence on Aealo. First, the record is intense like dark, hotly spiced chocolate consumed with ruby red wine. And – second – it is not Black Metal. At least not in a proper sense. Okay, nothing new there, as even the powers that be officially called Rotting Christ Dark or Extreme Metal back in 2010.

And in truth, the Black Metal thing only (kind of) came back with the 2016 album Rituals. Despite the fact that the band hastened to state that this newest record would encompass all kinds of rituals. … [...] Click to raid more!

We write the year 2000. This was the time when the world awoke to the Y2K disaster that did not happen, even if it was widely hyped. Christ did not return to this mortal coil either, nor the devil for that matter. No earthquakes to speak of, the Earth did not break up and no major asteroids hit the blue planet. A non-event after all these predictions, Nostradamus be damned.

But the Black Metal universe – in contrast – spawned a felt gazillion of metal records. To cite just two of them: Immortal crab-walked themselves into Damned in … [...] Click to raid more!